Life at the Villa

Saturday we headed off for our week at a villa just outside the city of Siena. Two years ago, I joined a group of 7 at a villa in Tuscany near Regello and had the most amaying week. So based on the insanely fun time we had then, I rallied a group to do the same thing again. This time the players were all women. It was a 6 bedroom house, with 6 women...so we all lived in luxury. The house consisted of Amy, Sherry, Amy's friend Joy from Washington DC, my dear friend Veronique from Geneva, her friend Anna, and me. Joy met Amy and I at our apartment in Rome on Saturday morning and then after picking up our car, we gathered Sherry and headed off to Tuscany. Veronique and Anna were driving down from Geneva the same day and meeting us at the villa. We stopped at a little town called Pienza right near Montalcino where they are famous for their Pecorino cheese. Needless to say, we stocked up on some of that great cheese, as well as some yummy Montepulcinos and then headed off to our villa.

The villa was restored in the 1970's, but was originally built in the 15th century...so it was very old and beautiful...albeit a little dark. One bonus to the villa living, was that Sherry had just finished a month long cooking class in Sorrento, so she wanted to use us as guinea pigs for her Italian recipes. We willingly olbliged...and may I just say...Sherry knocked herself out. We had three great nights of Sherry's cooking and I'm not sure which was best....all fantastic!

Our day were spent either laying by the pool, or taking a day trip to one of the great Tuscan destinations. Our first day was a relaxing pool day...followed by dinner in Siena right on the Campo. Day 2, we deceded to do a little wine tasting in the Montepulciano/Montaclino regions. Veronique was the master planner on this one. She called several wineries and made appointments for us to go in and see their wineries and taste the wine. The highlight was definitely our first stop. It was a winery in Montepulciano called Villa St. Anna that is run by all women. The owner/caretaker, Simone, took us on an extensive tour of her winery told us the stories of how the winery had been in her family for several generations and then invited to come and taste the wine. When we walked into the tasting room, she had a table set up with 5 bottles fo wine open, lovely big wine glasses, and an assortment of cold cuts, and breads to eat with out tasting. It was so lovely and she was so passionate about each wine that we tasted, that it made the experience one of the best wine tasting experiences I've ever had... but the kicker was...the wine was FANTASTIC! For those of you who love wine like I do, Simone distributes in the US and there were three that I loved...The Rosso de Montepulciano, the Nobile de Montepulciano, and the ˝Poldo˝ which is also a Nobile. Villa St. Anna...buy it! We sure did - and drank it every day for the rest of the week. We visited another winery in Montepulcino that day, but I honestly don't remember the name...and then we stopped by the town of Montalcino to try some Brunello. Not sure if it was just that we had already drank too much, or if the first wines were so good compared to everything else, but we just couldn't seem to get into the Brunello's...and those are supposed to be the best! We came home to another Sherry dinner...yet again delicioso!

Tuesday Joy, Vernoque, Ana and I did some shopping at the outlets (fortunately without too much damage, while Amy and Sherry kicked it by the pool. We had a chef come in a prepare dinner for us that night - something we arranged though the villa company, but I gotta tell you...he had nothing on Sherry! After the dinner...and apparently a lot of wine, Anna who is originaly from Bolivia decide to teach how to slasa, mambo, and whatever other latin dances there are out there. It's a little embarassing actually, but picture 6 intoxicated) women all shaking their booties to latin beats. I have video of it...but only the privilged few will be allowed to see it...or not...

Wednesday was a day in Florence...always a treat....Thursday another pool day, and Friday was a day in Siena. It also so happened that Friday was Joy's 40th birthday! So we decided to make it a little special. During the day, we created a list of tasks that she had to compelte having to do with Siena. she had to light a candle in the Duomo, climb to the top of the tower, find out the history of Simone Martini (I still haven't figured that one out) and then get a gelato and take a picture with the gelato store owner. Those were the daytime tasts. For the nighttime, she had to ask three different men a series of questions. One young, one middle aged and one old. I actually don't thing she got past the young one...but who can blame her! We had dinner at the Osteria Le Logge, which is a reall great restaurant in Siena...in fact last time Sherry was there she ran into Al and Tipper Gore. We didn't have any star sightings, but our waiter knew the owner of one of our favorite wine bars in San Francisco...which was a little bit of a small world story. I hope it was a great b-day for Joy...we all had a great time!

One side note for anyone who wants to rent a villa. The company I worked with was
www.TuscanyNow.com. The have gorgeous villas and a great selection if you book early. I highly recommend this as a way to see Tuscany, as well as to have an incredibly fun week with friends. But be ready for the mosquitos! They were rampant in our villa. The doors and windows didn't have screens...but it was too bloody hot to close the windows during the day, so we shared our villa with about one million mosquitos. Sherry who has been traveling to some pretty exotic locations for the past 10 months commented that it was the worst mosquito experience she's had since she's been traveling. Says something...bring bug spray!

So great to travel with such stellar women. Each great in their own way and made the week extraordinary. Big hugs to all of you and thanks for such a great time! Stay tuned for updates on Croatia!!!